At the Starnberg Brewery, things happen in quick succession.
The roof of the new building in Wieling should be ready before Christmas, and the move from Höhenrain to the municipality of Feldafing is planned for spring.
In the new year, the company will also start selling its beer in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Höhenrain / Wieling -
It's been an eventful year for the Starnberg brewery.
Not only because of the corona pandemic, which has massively affected one of the main customers of Starnberg beer, the gastronomy.
The year is also marked by the construction of the new brewery in Wieling, where the company plans to brew its beer from May 2021 - provided everything continues to go well.
In July, the ground-breaking ceremony took place in the Wieling industrial park. Before that, many negotiations were necessary before the building permit was available (we reported).
Overall, according to the brewery's founder, Florian Schuh, the work is going quite smoothly.
“So far we've got everything right,” he says.
The new building is ready, the concrete work is finished, according to Schuh.
This week the workers want to start with the roof.
"It is planned that the roof should be ready before Christmas," says the managing director.
A special brewery floor is supposed to be installed over Christmas.
The current plan is for the brewery to start installing the systems in January.
“The first test brew is planned for April,” says Schuh.
"We could then move in May."
Then the headquarters of the Starnberg brewery will no longer be Höhenrain, but Wieling, and the output will be completely different: The new, fully automatic 80 hectolitre brewhouse will enable an annual beer production of 70,000 hectoliters.
“Our current largest tanks hold 3000 liters,” explains Schuh.
"The new ones in Feldafing will be 66,000 liters."
Business is not going badly despite the pandemic, as Schuh says.
"We have switched the brewing operations to Corona mode." This means that fewer people are working in the brewhouse at the same time.
“It takes a little longer to produce, but we need fewer people.” There are normally three men in the brewhouse, which is now avoided.
Nobody is on short-time work because there are no corona-related failures.
"It looks pretty good."
The current second lockdown is a bit of a concern for Schuh.
“The gastronomy has fallen into rigor mortis,” he stated.
"During the first lockdown, we were able to cope with the failures by our partners in the catering industry because there was greater demand in the retail sector."
From the beginning of next year, Schuh hopes to receive demand from Germany's most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia.
In July, the Starnberg brewery welcomed a new shareholder, the Schadeberg family from the Krombacher brewery.
The Starnbergers can now also use their distribution channels.
"Building up a sales nationwide is extremely labor-intensive," says Schuh.
So he's all the happier that he can fall back on the Krombacher structures.
First, there will be beer from Lake Starnberg at Rewe and Edeka in North Rhine-Westphalia.
“These are the big players.
If the beer is well received, we expect further inquiries to come. ”In 2016, when he started production in Höhenrain, he followed this path as well.
"After the big chains, the owner-managed shops followed."
Schuh is confident that he can tap into the new market quickly.
The first test tastings in North Rhine-Westphalia went well, the customers liked the Starnberger Helle.
“Our brand was well received,” he reports.
"Why not?
In Bavaria, where there is a high density of light, we also arrived safely. "